Explaining your Project to Co-workers...in simple terms

It is important to have people on your side as you implement the project, and there is a balance between not enough info and too much when you’re informing employees.  Anxiety is often caused by a lack of knowing (“will my job be affected?”) yet too many details can confuse them.  So as you prepare to implement ISO 9000:2000, try to get people engaged without giving them the nitty-gritty details. We’ve all seen an ISO implementation broken down into any number of steps, our site even gives some examples. But depending on the context of the conversation it may be too much. Here is a simple look which may help translate the project into very concise terms that anyone can understand:

1. Documentation = Say what you do – document your processes/procedures
2. Implementation = Do what you say – follow procedures as documented
3. Training – Ensure that everyone knows how to perform their procedures/tasks.
4. Improve – Continually look for ways to improve your processes. 

And all of the above must be customer driven…you must be meeting or exceeding customer expectations.  This is the big advantage of ISO 9001:2000 over the 1994 version.  You could follow #1-4 above, but it is said that if you are designing CONCRETE life jackets you won’t have many customers, even though you are making them consistently to the specification.

Everyone needs to be informed. So keeping it in simple terms might just help you win some employees and keep them from becoming cynical detractors.